Chapter 48

AFTERWORD This series is the sixth I’ve written, including those that have never seen the light of day. Honestly, that’s probably a lot less than you’d expect, but come to think of it, there were many I gave up halfway through. Plus, in some cases, I rewrote one work over three times only to end up shelving it. As such, quite a few of my books were invisible, in a way. It’s said that addition is always better than subtraction. And to borrow a quote from The Little Prince: “What is essential is invisible to the eye.” That quote is a good segue into this series, since my concept has Rain and Air acting in ways that are invisible to the eye. They never leave their mark on history, and no one knows of their efforts. No matter what they achieve, no one praises them, nor do they expect any such reward. And yet, they still act in the service of their sense of justice. That’s a hard path to travel. But even people like them, who always remain behind the curtain of history, have something only they can do, be it an achievement for the better…or for worse. Athly is a good example of that. She’s a truly kind girl who tries her hardest, but fate was cruel to her and sent her on a darker path. And I find that things like that happen often, really. If people always knew the right answers ahead of time, we would never live to know regret, but that just isn’t possible. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed Volume 3. Athly, who’s been acting in the shadows since the end of Volume 1, has finally started making her move, which leaves me personally satisfied. I think she did what she truly wanted, so even if the end result was rather tragic, I’d personally like to at least give her a consolation prize for all her hard work. On the protagonists’ front, Rain and Air were much more passive this time around. They got tossed around by the turbulent situation, but I personally think they still largely did what they wanted to. In fact, everyone truly and honestly did their best. I’d like to thank everyone who was involved in the creation of this book as well as all the readers. I’ve truly gotten a great deal of help from a lot of people. You were a great source of strength to me, especially when I couldn’t tell those around me that I was writing novels. I hope I can become a person worthy of interacting with you. And when that time comes, I hope we truly get along. Well, until we meet again. It’s been an honor. Kei Uekawa